After a long weekend, Hoi Chai – a pseudonym – was waiting in the immigration queue to enter Macau. Although she had changed her gender to male on her Hong Kong identity card, on her Macau identity card she is still identified as female. This is because Macau still doesn’t have a data change policy for transgender people, something he considers “unfair”.
When she entered Macau, she used the Single Account application to cross the border, without the need for human verification. When the automatic gate opened, he confessed to feeling extremely happy and relieved. “If there hadn’t been so many people in the queue, the immigration guards might have made a special effort to check my ID card. I don’t want to be checked every time I enter Macau. I hope to be able to renew and update my Macau identity card soon.”
The resident recalls that when he entered Macau through the counter service, border officials questioned his identity and why the gender on his card was different from his appearance. The guards even contacted the Hong Kong government to verify the information. “I was very scared. Why didn’t they believe me when the card was clearly mine? What did I do to generate these suspicions?”
Chai says that he had all his surgeries in Hong Kong, and that his identity card in the neighbouring region has already been updated. “So the best thing would be for both Hong Kong and Macau to allow us to update our ID cards to minimise the problems we face on a daily basis,” he told our newspaper.
Research and re-research
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has also recently expressed concern about the updating of identity cards in Macau. In July 2022, one of the members, Shuichi Furuya, said that “discrimination against people of different sexual orientations and LGBT people still exists in Macau, reflecting the relatively conservative nature of local society and the Government’s inactivity in promoting this”. Macau also “does not allow a transgender person to have their gender identity reflected on their identity card,” added Furuya.
Liu Dexue, director of the Justice Affairs Bureau (DSAJ), said at the time that the Macau government had set up an interdepartmental working group to study the legal systems and practices of various countries and regions, describing that among all 116 countries and regions in the world, 57 allowed gender reassignment, while 59 did not. Of the countries and regions that allow this change, 28 require applicants to undergo sex reassignment surgery before they can change their original sex.
Macau’s legal system does not directly stipulate how to deal with the issue of transgender residents. At the time, Liu indicated that the Macao SAR authorities would continue to promote the relevant work in the Legislative Assembly, adding that it was “necessary to promote the issue through consensus in society”. As for the composition of the committee mentioned by the government and the stages of its work, the DSAJ only stated that “the Macao SAR Government continues to study the revision of the legal system for recognising gender identity from legal, medical and social perspectives”. “As the relevant issues are comprehensive and complex, it will take time to carefully consider the legal issues involved.”
Although Article 23 of the Macao SAR Resident Identity Card Regulations (Administrative Regulation No. 23/2002) states that gender reassignment is a situation that requires “mandatory renewal” of the identity card, the Identification Services Bureau (DSI) told our newspaper that, “according to the law, the gender on the Resident Identity Card is indicated according to the birth registration or an identification document with the same legal effect.” He also explained that the gender reassignment of residents “is not regulated by existing Macau laws”. “As gender reassignment involves changing one’s current sex, it is necessary to carefully consider these issues with regard to changes in fundamental social values,” he said.
In its reply to PLATAFORMA, the DSI adds that since 2013 the department has received a total of 16 enquiries about changing the gender on an identity card, of which two were written requests for such a change. However, they did not indicate how many cases were successful.
In February of this year, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal rejected sex reassignment surgery as the only viable, objective and verifiable criterion for changing gender on the Hong Kong Identity Card. It also ordered People’s Registration Offices not to use sex reassignment surgery as the sole criterion for changing gender on identity documents, in order to avoid administrative problems that may arise due to the discrepancy between the physical appearance of transgender people and their gender.
As for the Macau SAR, Ng Teng-fong, president of the Macau Gender Equity Association, points out that there is currently no legislation specifying what constitutes a “change of gender”. Regarding the problem of not being able to change the relevant information on the ID card, he says that if a trans person’s original gender is still on their ID card, they will probably be rejected when trying to enter organisations or activities with gender requirements. As an example, he says that “a trans woman could be refused entry to a women’s organisation on the grounds that she is still male.”
Furthermore, as the gender on the identity card cannot be changed, transgender people will still be categorised by their original gender, especially in matters such as civil marriage and adoption. Considering that gender reassignment mainly involves identity, not sexual orientation, and that same-sex marriages are not recognised under Macau law, “it is likely that some transgender people will be able to marry someone who matches their sexual orientation, while others will not”. Anthony Lam, president of the Macau Rainbow Association, which promotes the social inclusion of the LGBT+ community, points to the example of a person who has transitioned from male to female and wishes to marry a man: “Because it is impossible to change the gender on the documents, what would clearly be an opposite-gender marriage becomes a same-sex marriage in the eyes of the law. Therefore, they may not be able to form a family, being affected when applying for public housing, visitation rights, medical decisions, inheritance rights, etc.”
Lam also points out that ten years ago, the DSI and its superior body, the Office of the Secretary for Administration and Justice, promised to begin the process of amending legislation on this issue. However, ten years have passed and no progress has been made. “We would like to emphasise that Macau is the only place in the Greater China region where transgender people cannot change their gender registration,” says the activist.
A welcoming destination for tourists of all genders
The president of the Macau Rainbow Association stresses that the Macau SAR government should strengthen education on gender diversity and make the city an attractive tourist destination for LGBT+ travellers.
Lam points out that some tourists have asked the association whether they should use toilets in Macau according to the gender on their passport or their appearance, and whether they would be arrested if they were accused of being a different gender to the one on their travel documents.
“The Association has pointed out in several interviews that many visitors to Macau are LGBT+. If the Macau government is really determined to attract more foreign tourists, it should not only continue to run a publicity campaign, but also take care of these small details to make the city a truly welcoming place.”
